Carriage



(No Model.)

J. BURKE.

CARRIAGE.

No. 335,741. Patented Feb. 9, 1886.

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.Zer I a y- JOHN BURKE, OF NEVBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS.

CARRIAGE.

5PECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 335,741, dated February 9, 1886.

Application filed November 27, 1885. Serial No. 184,049. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN BURKE, ofNewburyport, in the county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Carriages, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which said invention appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accom panying drawings, formingpart of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation representing the shafts and whiffletree of a carriage provided with my improvement; Fig. 2, a top plan view of the same; and Fig. 3, a front elevation, the shafts being shown in vertical cross-section.

Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures of the drawings.

My invention relates more especiall to means for preventing the driving-reins from being accidentally caught under the ends of the whiffietree of the carriage; and it consists in the employment of a curved spring-guard having its lower end attached to the shaft or cross-bar of the shafts and its upper end jointed to the whiffletree, as hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed, the object being to produce a simpler, cheaper, and more effective device of this character than is now in ordinary use.

The nature of the improvement will be readily understood by all conversant with such matters from the following explantion, its extreme simplicity rendering an elaborate description unnecessary.

In the drawings, A A represent the shafts; B, the cross-bar which unites the shafts near their rear end, and G the whiffletree, which is centrally pivoted at m on the crossbar, in the usual manner.

A curved metallic spring, D, is attached at m to each of the shafts A, or to the bar B opposite the whiffietree O, the upper ends of the springs being elongated and jointed to the upper side of the whiffletree, as shown at z. The joint 2 preferably consists of a small plate, f, which is firmly secured to the upper side of the whiffletree, and a headed stud or screw, T, which passes through a hole in the end of the spring into said plate or through a hole in the plate into the body of the whiffietree, thereby permitting the tree to oscillate freely on the pivot 00 when in use.

The springs are flat, and their lower ends rigidly attached to the shafts'or to the bar B, so that when the whiffletree is swung on its pivot a torsional strain will be exerted on the springs, which will tend to return the whiffietree to its normal position when left free. This function of the springs is, however, merely subservient, their principal office being to act as guards to prevent the driving reins from accidentally catching under the ends of the whifflletree when the carriage is at rest and the reins dropped-an oflice which they effectually perform in a manner that will be readily obvious without a more explicit description.

I do not confine myselfto rigidly attaching the lower end of the springs and jointing the upper end, as described, as both ends may be jointed or both ends rigidly attached, if desired, or the upper end may be rigidly attached and the lower end jointed; but I deem it preferable to construct and arrange it as shown.

Havingthus explained my invention, what I claim is 1. In a device for preventing the drivingreins from being accidentally caught by the whiffletree of a carriage, a metallic guard having one of its ends attached to the shaft or to the cross-bar of the shafts and the other to the whiffletree, said guard passing upwardly over the outer end of the whifflet-ree and being adapted to prevent the reins from passing under the same, substantially as described.

2. In a device for preventing the driving reins from being accidentally caught by the whifietree of a carriage, a spring-guard having one of its ends rigidly attached to the shaft or cross-bar of the shafts and the other jointed to the whiffletree, or vice versa, said guard passing upwardly over the outer end i of the whiffletree and being adapted to prevent the reins from passing under the same, substantially as set forth. 7 JOHN BURKE. Witnesses:

EDWARD B. BROWN, GEORGE l3. Bisnor. 

